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No. 17. 



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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 




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At a special'meeting of the Union Leagtte, of Philadklphia, held at the League 
House, on the 11th day of January, 1864, on motion of Mr. MORTON McMICHAEL, 
seconded by Mr. WM. D. LEWIS, the following preamble and resolutions were 
unanimously adopted : 

'■'■Whereas, The skill, courage, fidelity, and integrity with which, in a period of 
unparalleled trial, ABRAHAM LINCOLN has conducted the administration of the 
National Government, have won for him the highest esteem and the most affectionate 
regard of his grateful countrymen : 

"And Whereas, The confidence which all loyal men repose in his honesty, his 
wisdom, and his patriotism, should be proclaimed on every suitable occasion, in order 
that his hands may be strengthened for the important work he has yet to perform : 

"A7id Whereas, The Union League of Philadelphia, composed, as it is, of those 
who, having formerly belonged to various parties, in this juncture recognize no party 
but their country ; and representing, as it does, all the industrial, mechanical, manu- 
facturing, commercial, financial, and professional interests of the city, is especially 
qualified to give, in this behalf, an unbiassed and authentic utterance to the public 
sentiment. Therefore, 

"Resolved, That to the prudence, sagacity, comprehension, and perseverance of 
Mr. Lincoln, under the guidance of a benign Providence, the nation is more indebted 
for the grand results of the war, which southern rebels have wickedly waged against 
Liberty and the Union, than to any other single instrumentality, and that he is justly 
entitled to whatever regard it is in the power of the nation to bestow. 

"Resolved, That we cordially approve of the policy which Mr. Lincoln has 
adopted and pursued, as well the principles he has announced as the acts he has 
performed ; and that we shall continue to give an earnest and energetic support to 
the doctrines and measures by which his administration has thus far been directed 
and illustrated. 

"Resolved, That as Mr. Lincoln has had to endure the largest share of the labor 
required to suppress the rebellion, now rapidly verging to its close, he should also 
enjoy the largest share of the honors which await those who have contended for the 
right; and as, ,iii all respects, he has shown pre-eminent ability in fulfilling the 
requirements' of., his .gre'at-'office, we jecognize with pleasure the unmistakable 
indications of the popular will in all th9. loyal States, and heartily join with our 
fellow citizens, without*any- distinctjbn of party, here and elsewhere, in presenting 
him as the People's candidate for th^<PTesidency at the approaching election. 

"Resolved, That a committee of seventy-six be appointed, whose duty it shall be 
to promote the object now proposed, by correspondence with other loyal organiza- 
tions, by stimulating the expression of public opinion, and by whatever additional 
modes shall, in their judgment, seem best adapted to the end ; and that this com- 
mittee have power to supply vacancies in their own body, and to increase their 
number at their own discretion. 

"Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings, properly engrossed and attested, 
be forwarded to President Lincoln; and that they also be published in the loyal 
newspapers." 

GEORGE H. BOKER, 

Secretarp. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



"What will be the place assigned by history to Abraham Lincoln ? 
Will he be recorded in the future as the " gorilla" of the Richmond 
rhetorician, the "baboon" of the Northern Pro-slavery Democrat, 
or will he be blazoned in the Annals of the Great Republic as the 
honest, sagacious, steadfast man who conducted the country 
through the most fearful perils that ever threatened the life of a 
nation ? 

Few of us can forget the feelings of doubt and distrust with 
which we regarded his advent to the Presidential chair. The sys- 
tem of delegate elections and packed conventions had so long ruled, 
the politics of the country, that nominations to ofBce had become 
the sport of party hacks and managers, and no man widely known, 
or of national reputation, could hope to be selected as a presidential 
candidate. The mass of the people, immersed in their individual 
cares, and blindly trusting in the proverbial good fortune of the 
United States, considered the choice of a President as a matter 
comparatively unimportant, and surrendered their political duties 
to the professional wire-pullers, whose livelihood lay in the pursuit 
an-d occupation of office. That the choice of the Chicago Conven- 
tion, therefore, should fall upon a man of whom little was known, 
was not a subject of surprise. As the representative of a prin- 
ciple, he received the support of his party, and that support, owing 
to the dissensions of the democracy, was sufficient to elect him. 
^ As events came thickly crowding upon us, in the interval between 
the election and the inauguration, men inquired more curiously as 
to the man who was called upon to confront dangers so unexpected 



\ 

and so unprecedented. That his native energy had elevated him 
from a youth of poverty and labor ^xas reassuring, and yet the nar- 
row sphere in which his life had mostly been passed seemed to deprive 
him of the opportunities of familiarity with the great principles 
and details of statesmanship requisite for^he perilous contingencies 
of the future. That he was universally admitted to be an honest 
man was satisfactory, yet the training of the Illinois bar did not 
pre-suppose the ability to grapple with the sternest and the largest 
questions which, since the great French Revolution, have tasked 
the intellect of a leader of men. 

The January and February of 1861 wore drearily on. Mr. 
Buchanan's imbecility and pusillanimity depressed the popular 
heart, until at length we began .to ask ourselves whether we really 
had a country and a nationality ; whether " coercion" might not 
truly be the "heresy" which secessionists proclaimed it; whether 
the Constitution had provided for its own perpetuation; and whe- 
ther there was any inherent force in the Federal Union to prevent 
its dissolution at the first shock of a discontented number. Wo 
felt that nothing could be worse or weaker than the existing 
administration, and yet we knew not whether the incoming one 
would be better or stronger ; while the people, humiliated by the 
unavenged outrage and unrepressed bravado of rebels, looked vainly 
around for som.e rallying point, and, in the sickness of despair at 
their own impotence, were almost ready to abandon institutions 
which had proved so powerless to resist the assaults of defiant 
treason. 

At this moment of supreme agony, Abraham Lincoln, new and 
untried, assumed the Chief Magistracy of the distracted country. 
Even in the North, a powerful party longed to strike hands with 
rebellion, and his first foretaste of office was the plot to assassi- 
nate him in Baltimore, which forced him to enter the capital by 
stealth. An empty Treasury, to which timid capitalists oiFered 
money at thirty-six per cent, per annum ; a navy scattered to the 
four quarters of the globe ; an army cunningly stationed where its 
most efiective strength was at the mercy of traitors ; arsenals 
despoiled and the arms in the hands of rebels ;' eight States in 
open revolt ; six more trembling on the verge and only awaiting a 



decent excuse ; furious partisans throughout the North openly 
threatening armed resistance if 'J coercion" were attempted; such 
^yas the condition of affairs which greeted his accession to ofiSce. 
Nor was this all, for our least dangerous enemies were those who 
openly threw up their commissions and joined the rebellion. The 
democracy had left Us a legacy of traitors in office, civil and mili- 
tary, who remained in the enjoyment of place and pay for the 
purpose of serving the enemies of the country. The new Presi- 
dent was surrounded with spies and could trust the fidelity of scarce 
any one connected with the machinery of government. 

Thus with doubt, confusion and demoralization around him, with 
no landmarks in the past to serve as a guide for the present or as a 
precedent for the future, did Mr. Lincoln undertake the awful 
responsibilities of his high position. A less resolute man would 
have shrunk from the fearful trial, or would have fatally compro- 
mised the people, who from want of faith in their rulers had begun 
to lose faith in their institutions and in themselves. Fortunately 
he had no such misgivings. A man of the people, he. had seen 
deep into the popular heart, and he knew that under the chaotic 
surface there lay an all pervading love of country which could be 
moulded into as stern and self-sacrificing a patriotism as ever illus- 
trated the annals of Greece or Rome. -Thus relying on himself 
and on the people, he boldly set to work toVestore the Republic. 

Men breathed freer as they read his inaugural address. Con- 
ciliatory to the South, it closed no door by which erring States could 
return to their duty, but yfst it declared in unmistakable tones 
that the Union was perpetual, and that the Constitution and the 
laws should be enforced at every cost. More than all, it breathed 
an honesty of purpose and an integrity of soul that satisfied even 
his opponents that the times of chicanery and double dealing were 
past, and that at last we had a ruler who said what he meant, and 
who meant only what he felt to be honest and true. 

It was a great point gained when the people thus could feel con- 
fidence in their chief. It remained to be seen whether they were 
worthy of the confidence which he reposed in them. The glorious 
uprising in April proved this, but it ^Iso proved more. The bom- 
bardment of Sumter was not a more belligerent or rebellious act in 



principle than the firing on the "Star of the "West" in January, 
nor so dangerous as the ordinances of secession which eight States 
had previously adopted. Our forts had been seized by force or 
fraud, our arsenals had been plundered, our soldiers had been cap- 
tured, our flag had been insulted and desecrated with every circum- 
stance of ignominy, and yet the North had borne all this like a 
Avhipped child, for it had lost faith and was fast losing self-respect. 
Under Buchanan, the fiill of Sumter would but have added an- 
other to the long category of wrongs tamely submitted to. Five 
weeks under Lincoln found the people in a different mood. Faith 
in him had restored faith in themselves. They again felt that 
they had institutions to be perpetuated and a destiny to be worked 
out, and with that feeling came confidence in their right and in 
their might. The country was saved so soon as the people recog- 
nized in their President a man who believed that he could save it, 
and who honestly intended to do so. 

Had Abraham Lincoln done no more than this, he would have 
merited a place between Washington and Jackson. It is a great 
thing to lift a nation to the highest level of its duties and responsi- 
bilities, and few^ men to whom, in the world's history, the oppor- 
tunity has been vouchsafed, have accomplished the task so tho- 
roughly. 

This one great fact rendered possible all that followed. While 
Europe unanimously declared that the Union was hopelessly de- 
stroyed, and that any attempt to restore it by force could only 
lead to universal anarchy, the national credit was restored and our 
finances were redeemed, notwithstanding the necessity for unex- 
ampled expenditure. Great armies were organized with unprece- 
dented rapidity. Arms and munitions of war were accumulated 
with a promptitude hitherto unknown. A navy was extemporized, 
which enforced a blockade, pronounced impossible by wondering 
nations, A diplomacy of mingled firmness and moderation has 
kept in check, amid bewildering complications, the jealous powers 
wliich eagerly sought occasion to complete our ruin. And now, 
the tliird year of gigantic war, in drawing to its close, finds the 
nation stronger and more confident than ever. The rebellion is 
split in two, ^nd the dissevered parts are each hemmed in on every 



side by our victorious forces. It is gathering up its remaining 
energies for one last despairing effort. If that fails, and if its 
military strength is broken, it has no reserve to fall back upon, 
and must yield perforce. Our task -will then be to reconstruct the 
shattered edifice of Southern society, to bind together again in 
harmonious union the lately warring sections, and to efface by the 
arts of peace the havoc and desolation inseparable from civil war. 

And now the momentous question arises before the A.merican 
people — to whose hands shall be confided the delicate trust of 
restoring the Union of our fathers ? Not the Union of Calhoun 
and Polk and Pierce and Buchanan, which mutual distrust ren- 
dered a Union but in name. With a lavish expenditure of blood 
and treasure we have bought the right to demand that in future 
our country shall be one in feeling and in interest ; that no jarring 
sections shall disturb the general harmony, but that a homogeneous 
and united people shall enjoy in peace and mutual good-will the 
priceless blessings which, under God, nature and our institutions 
rendered possible in our land. Who is there that can secure for us 
these results for which we have paid so heavy a price ? 

As Abraham Lincoln, on ascending the Presidential chair, paved 
the way to a restoration of the Union by establishing a long-forgot- 
ten confidence between the Government and the people, so he con- 
firmed that confidence by showing himself the leader of the people 
and not of a party. If, in this, he has aroused the opposition of 
extremists who assisted to elect him, it but gives him an additional 
claim on reasonable men of all parties. 

The great duty to which Mr. Lincoln has dedicated himself with 
rare singleness of purpose is the one thought which engrosses every 
true American heart — the re-establishment of the Union on a per- 
manent basis. To this, all else for the moment is secondary, and 
every obstacle in its way must be removed. Few among us, at the 
outbreak, recognised that slavery was such an obstacle. We all 
imagined that a moderate display of force, accompanied by evi 
dences that we wished no evil, save to those who had misled our 
brethren, would soon cause the South to confess its error and 
to retutn to those who were ready to welcome its repentance. Our 
generals were ordered to disturb as lightly as might be the frame- 



■work of Southern society, and to protect the interests of indi- 
viduals as no invading army ever guarded them before. Offers of 
assistance were made to suppress anticipated slave insurrections, 
and when Fremont in Missouri, and Hunter in South Carolina, 
undertook tO interfere with the relations of master and slave, their 
acts were promptly disavowed, and they were recalled. Even in 
July, 1862, a theatened veto was interposed to soften the rigor of 
a confiscation act, which had a clear majority in the national 
councils. 

The progress of the war dispelled many illusions, not the least of 
which was, that we could fight with gloves. We recognised that 
the tyranny of the Southern oligarchy was too strong and all per- 
vading for us to expect aid from Southern Unionists, crushed to 
the earth and unable to take a step in defence of their rights. We 
found that slavery was not only the cause of the rebellion, but that, 
in place of being, as we had supposed, an inherent weakness, it 
was really a source of strength. Its destruction became, therefore, 
necessary to the overthow of the rebel chiefs, and also to the per- 
manency of the triumph of the national cause. 

This last consideration, however, was slowly reached, and the 
Emancipation Proclamation was issued solely as a military mea- 
sure. In September, 1862, Mr. Lincoln wrote to those who urged 
him to convert the war for the Union into a war against slavery — 

" If there be those who would not save the Union unless they 
could, at the same time, save slavery, I do not agree with them. 

"If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they 
could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 

"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to 
save or destroy slavery." 

In these terse sentences are embodied the sentiment which ani- 
mates the great mass of the American people, and to this sentiment 
has Mr. Lincoln thoroughly proved his fidelity. 

That the Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure, de- 
signed solely to destroy the power of rebellious resistance, and 
not to divert the war from its original design, is easily shown. A 
hundred days were given before it should take effect, in hopes that 
the rebels might avert it by laying down their arms. The door 



was held ■wide open for their return, for during those hundred days 
of grace, and before the repulse of Fredericksburg, in his letter to 
Fernando Wood, Mr. Lincoln promised "a full and general 
amnesty," if they would return to the Union and send representa- 
tives to the National Congress. Most men will think that this 
betrays over-eagerness for peace, when they reflect that for more 
than a year we might have had Davis and Benjamin, Lee and 
Slidell domineering in Congress, and that the approaching elec- 
tion would have been secured to the slave power by the customary 
alliance between the South and the Northern Democracy. 
• The rebels fortunately declined to avail themselves of this error. 
The hundred days elapsed, and the Proclamation took effect. As 
an exercise of the war power, it was undoubtedly justifiable. If 
the slave were regarded as property, aiding by , his labor in the 
support of hostile armies, he could be seized and converted to our 
own use, like any other article of property. If he were a man, 
bound to us by community^ of interests, though inhabiting the 
enemy's territory, no law of war could, prevent, our accepting the 
assistance wliich he was so eager to tender. Circumstances bad 
forced us to extend to rebels in arms the rights of belligerents, and 
with those rights they had also to accept the concurrent responsi- 
bilities. 

The results of the war during the last twelve-month have not 
shown that the Proclamation was a mistake in military policy. • 

When Mr. Lincoln recommended the plan of compensated 
emancipation which was adopted by Congress, he showed that he 
recognised fully how great an element of future strife lay in the 
institution of slavery, and how beneficial to the whole country, its 
abolition would be. Yet he hesitated long to act upon his convic- 
tions, and he waited until the people should be prepared to support 
and endorse his view&. . Moderate in all his opinions, he wanted a 
gradual, not a violent change, and long after his Emancipation 
Proclamation was issued, he provoked the wrath of the radical 
emancipationists in Missouri, by lending what aid he constitution- 
ally could, to the " conservatives" in that State, who desired that 
the extinction of slavery should be brought about gradually. 
Possibly in this Mr, Lincoln was mistal^en, yet if so, the error 



10 

arose from the desire -fflucli he has constantly manifested, to har- 
monize the conflicting interests of the country, even at the expense 
of temporary popularity. 

The wisest statesman does not disdain to profit by experience, 
nor can the head of a popular government adopt measures of funda- 
mental change before the people are ripe for them. It is probable 
that Mr. Lincoln learned much as the war wore on ; at all events, 
the people did, and the conviction became steadily stronger as the 
forces of rebellion ebbed, that no peace could be lasting which 
should leave the slaveholders in possession of power to control the 
States of the South, and to weld them as of old, into one compact 
body, all powerful for oifence or defence. Whole States had been 
"wrested from the enemy, and were in an anomalous condition under 
military rule. Their position had to be defined, and this definition 
involved the permanent settlement of the slavery question and the 
mode by which the war would probably be terminated. These 
issues had to be promptly met, and upon their sagacious solution 
depended the destinies of the nation. 

Theorists and enthusiasts eagerly contended that "the territory 
won by our arms should be held as conquered provinces ; fanatics 
demanded that the ancient proprietors of the soil should be 
expatriated, and that their lands should be given to the freedmen ;' 
Southern sympathizers urged that no rights had been forfeited by 
rebellion, and that each State should resume its position untram- 
melled, that our councils might again be ruled by the chivalry for 
whom the cohesive power of public plunder could in the future, as 
in the. past, purchase abundance of Northern allies. Moderate 
men of all parties trembled before the mighty problem, so seemingly 
insoluble, until the Amnesty Proclamation came suddenly to 
relieve their doubts and fears, and to provoke the objurgations of 
enthusiasts, fanatics and sympathizers. 

* It is on this great measure that the reputation of Mr. Lincoln 
as a pratical statesman, will chiefly rest. It- dissociates the rebel 
leaders from those who have been entrapped or forced into treason ; 
it modifies the harshness of confiscation laws by maintaining the 
rights of property of those who return to their allegiance ; it 
points out the way by which the mass of the people can resume 



11 

tlieir civil and political privileges ; it preserves the States from 
external interference, and commits their reform to the hands of 
their ovrn citizens ; it assures us against any resumption of the 
quarrel, by making the triumph of the national arms complete the 
suicide of slavery ; and its exceptions from full amnesty draw the 
line about as "well as it can be done in gross, subject of course to 
the innumerable exceptions which will be made in favor of those 
who may hereafter prove themselVes worthy of grace. There 
is no danger, indeed, that a magnanimous people will be disposed 
to press its victory too sorely. Indemnity for the past will never 
be required. Security for the future is all that will be asked for, 
and this will be attained by a few examples, leaving the mass 
of the leaders to the punishment of their own consciences and the 
indignation of their outraged and deluded followers. 

In the Events which have crowded his presidential term, Mr. 
Lincoln has thus, by adhering with unwavering fidelity to the one 
great object of restoring the Union, succeeded in impressing upon 
friends and enemies the conviction of his caution, rectitude, firm- 
ness, and honesty of purpose. There are many who have richly 
earned the gratitude of the people for eminent services rendered to 
the Republic in the hour of her trials. There is no one who has 
so signally centered upon himself the confidence of all. There 
have been mistakes of detail in military, naval, and financial 
matters — mistakes inseparable from the sudden transition from pro- 
found and prolonged peace to civil war upon the largest scale. 
Yet in the general policy of the administration, in its principles of 
statesmanship, there have been few errors save those arising from .' "^ 
a too generous disbelief in the sincerity of Southern madness. ^3*. Ji*. 
This disbelief the people shared with their rulers, and the policy i . ^< 
now admitted to be indispensable would have been impossible at the ' 

earlier stage of the war, on account of the popular repugnance 
which it would have excited. 

Had Mr. Lincoln moved faster than he has done, he would have 
left the people behind him, and lost the support without which no 
popular government can conduct an exhausting war. Had he ' 

moved more slowly, our resources would have been more reduced 
than they now are, while the rebellion would have been incompara- 



12 

bly stronger, and the end would have been more distant than ever. 
As a Man of the People, understanding them and trusted hy 
them, he has proved himself the man for the time. There is no 
one whose name so spontaneously evokes an instinct of kindly 
confidence ; no'one who so thoroughly understands the complicated 
details of our civil and military difficulties, and no one whose 
sagacity has shown itself so rarely at fault. If we are to havo 
four or five years more of desperate war, it is barely possible that 
some military man may be found whose peculiar training may 
fit him better for the Commandership which is attached to our 
Chief Magistracy. If, however, the fighting shall be virtually 
ended by the fourth of March, 1865, and if the next Presidential 
term is to be occupied in removing the traces of civil war, in bind- 
ing the nation together in indestructible bonds, in starting it anew 
on its high career of prosperity, and in forgetting all of the past 
save the lessons which it teaches — if such are to be the duties of 
the next four years, then no one can be named who unites, like 
Abraham Lincoln, the kindliness and firmness, the skill and 
experience, the native sagacity and honesty to bring about an har- 
monious settlement, and to extort from repentant rebels the 
implicit confidence which those high qualities have vron from all 
loyal men. 






,t,2R?RY OF CONGRESS 

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